Crystal Bearer
by Serpent Tailed Angel
Summary: Gray wakes up one day and finds himself in a strange city, in strange clothes, surround by strange humanoid races. With only Jellal, who doesn't even remember the Nirvana incident, and Happy, who can't even fly, to help him, Gray must track everyone else down, restore their memories, and find a way to return them to their own world. Techinicaly a crossover.
1. Chapter 1

Let's say this happens at some point before Edolas.

**Chapter 1**

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I was dressed. Not just dressed. I was dressed in something _thick_. Maybe three layers, including something partially made of chainmail and partially a winter coat. I removed that immediately and looked around to see where I was.

I was on a bench in front of a fountain in a strange town. It certainly wasn't Magnolia. It was too crowded for that, and the architecture was weird. Lights everywhere were being produced by what I assumed to be a lachryma. Signs dangled in midair. A man sold misshapen carrots at the far corner of the room(?).

My chest itched, right where I'd had my Fairy Tail mark placed. I rubbed the spot. It felt weird, like someone had maybe glued rough diamond to it. Removing my shirt, my first thought upon seeing my chest was that someone, I think I was guessing it was Natsu, _had_ glued rough diamond to my chest, and in the exact shape as the Fairy Tail mark nonetheless. At first it felt a little weird to move with it on me, but as I flexed enough I noticed it was moving just fine, not like any sort of diamond. It didn't really look the right color anyway.

I got up to leave the fountain area. I wouldn't learn anything about my situation from just sitting there. People were staring at me. At first I just stared back. Most of the looked _different_. Women's hair would shoot out all different angles and grow out in three different colors, and the men were hardly any better. I figured I probably looked out of place too, until I noticed that the occasional people who looked more normal were staring too. A little boy pointed at the crystal where my Fairy Tail mark had been, not that I knew at the time what that meant, I assumed he was noting I had no shirt (his pointing being what made me notice).

I backtracked to the fountain to retrieve the clothes I'd removed. I wasn't putting more than the shirt back on, but I took the jacket with me anyway, just in case.

People still stared on my way back, but once I'd passed up all the people who saw me walking around shirtless no one seemed to pay me much heed. I blended into the crowd after that. The only path I could find eventually led to what looked something small boarding platform for a miniature train station. Several other people were waiting there, so I just waited for a moment too.

What pulled up wasn't a train. The attendant called it a shuttle. It was sort of like a large magic four wheeler, only it didn't have wheels. It hovered in the air. Another lachryma lookalike powered it. I was thoroughly impressed with their vehicle technology. For a minute I wondered if I'd landed myself in the future.

The shuttle stopped at a much larger platform. I wandered around there for a while. I didn't want to seem like an idiot for asking about what everyone here was treating as perfectly normal. The clock, though, I had to say something about. It was just outside the platform, people would look at it and say they hadn't realized how late it was, so it had to be a clock. I turned to the nearest man (one of the weirder looking ones) and said "How can you tell time with that?"

He shook his head at me and said "Clavat peasant" before turning and walking away, leaving me more confused than before.

I probably could have tried to figure out more at that point, but a handful of huge, brutish men(?) ran by right then, saying something about 'crystal bearer' and 'illegal arcane arts'. One shoved me to the ground, and I obtained a rather nasty bump on the head which destroyed whatever sense of direction I'd been maintaining.

From there I made my way closer to the edge of the city, though at the time I was just wandering. I was so confused at the time that looking back I can't remember exactly where it happened, but at some point a large dog tried to steal the jacket/chainmail. I was still disoriented, and it was clothing anyway, so I hadn't noticed the dog until it was already running away with my jacket.

_Why_ I cared to retrieve it I don't know. I guess it was a good thing I kept it in the end, since Jellal ended up getting a lot of use out of it, but it's not like I knew at the time that he'd want it, or even that he was there.

Oh, wait, I just gave that away, didn't I? Oh well, he came into the picture almost immediately after the dog. Or, was it a few days after? I think I was only unconscious for a couple hours…

Getting back to where I left off before going off on a tangent, I chased after this dog for a little while. Finally, I gave up on chasing it and fired some ice at it. Not like a spike or anything, just a cage to trap it in, I like dogs, honestly! Stop looking at me like I'm some sort of puppy killing monster.

The dog dogged the ice, and my attack instead crashed into what I guess was some sort of engine. There was an explosion. I mean, the type of explosion Natsu creates when he gets too carried away, only this one had metal in it to turn into scraps and send flying everywhere. One large chunk dug right into my leg. Scraps got into my eyes, making it impossible to see. I don't know what hit me next, but at least I got hit with the flat end of it. That's what knocked me out.

When I came to someone was carrying me. I was imagining Natsu laughing at me for such an epic failure when they set me down and started speaking. "That was stupid of you. Magic is forbidden inside the city. Didn't you know that?"

"…no"

The voice, which sounded just the slightest bit familiar, suddenly sounded much brighter "Thank god. That means I'm not the only one who got in trouble for that this week. I think we're far enough that it'll be alright…"

The pain in my leg started to ebb. Next the vision in my eyes started to return. At first it was blurry, then the vague mix of colors became poorly defined shapes, then, after a few more seconds, I could make out the face grinning stupidly at me. I'd only ever seen him once, but I recognized Jellal none the less. Like my Fairy Tail mark, the tattoo around his eye had been replaced with some sort of crystal.

"…Jellal? What the hell are _you _doing here?"

He shrugged "Dunno. Is that my name?"

"Why else would I call you by it?" He'd only just claimed amnesia a few days ago. I felt insulted that he'd try and say he had it again so soon. I'd never thought I looked like an idiot, but figured I must have to him.

Jellal shrugged "I wouldn't know. I just came to a few day ago with no memories." Oh, so I guess I was out for a few days "Actually, I got arrested almost immediately because I didn't know you couldn't use magic inside the city. They let me off the hook for having amnesia, and it helped that the power shut off in half the city around then." I was getting tired of his grin really fast. "I followed them to the power generator that failed and found you there. I thought they'd suspect you since you were also a crystal bearer, so I hid you in a different portion of the city." A look of guilt crossed his face "But then there was a mass evacuation because of the power outage. I didn't even have time to fix your wounds. I only just managed to get back to you today, and I had to take you out here before I could use any magic."

"You were a lot less talkative the last time I met you."

Jellal shrugged again "I wouldn't know if I'm more talkative or not." He reached to his side and pulled over that damned jacket that I'd gotten injured trying to retrieve and said "This is yours, right?"

I nodded. When he leaned over to hand it to me I saw a gun strapped to his back, but didn't comment on it. Jella sat there in front of me in silence for a little while before finally asking "Do you really know me?"

"Not well. It's more that I know 'of' you" I tried to explain "I only ever saw you once, and it wasn't for very long."

Looking a little dejected, he said "Oh. That's too bad. Like I said, I can only remember back a few days. I thought maybe you could tell me more about myself." Standing up, he added "You can at least tell me what your power is, right?"

"What?"

"You're a crystal bearer." He tapped the crystal on his cheek, and I glanced down at my chest. "You can use magic, can't you? What type of magic do you use?"

"Ice." I replied. "Is magic rare here?"

He gave me the same 'weirdo' look I'd gotten when I'd first left the fountain area "Yeah. At least, as far as I've heard. Only crystal bearers can use it, after all, and their supposed to be uncommon." He paused "Are you not from around here?"

"No. And neither are you."

Jellal didn't seem to care much about this news. He'd probably already figured that. I was about to tell him I knew someone who knew him well when he asked "Is your magic any good for fighting?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I want to go to the Selkie guild. I'm a Selkie after all, so I'm more likely to find someone who knows me there, but the train isn't running to the capital right now, and when I tried to go to the next station on foot there were a bunch of monsters in the way. My power isn't much good for fighting, and some monsters are hard to damage with a gun." Which explained why he had one.

Rather than question the issue of monsters, I said "Selkie?"

"One of the three tribes…" I shook my head to show I still had no idea what he was talking about "Are you from a really rural area? I'm not much of one to talk, since I had to have this explained to me a couple days ago, but it's like this. There are three tribes. Or clans. Or races. Or whatever. Clavat, Lilty, Selkie. You know which one you are, right?"

"Clavat?"

"Lilty run the city we were in, and just about everything else. Most of the Selkie live far away because of that. Since I'm a Selkie it makes sense that another Selkie is the most likely to know me, that's why I want to go to the guild. Can you help me get there?"

"Yeah. Sure." It was easier to ask him about the new world I'd landed in than someone who was actually from it. And he got me out of being arrested for taking out a large portion of the city's power. Plus, since he'd helped us with Nirvana and Erza had forgiven him, it didn't feel right to _completely_ hate him for that anymore. It seemed fair to help him get to this guild. Not that I expected him to find anyone there, but if we were both in this world it stood to reason that someone else could be, so we might run into them along the way.

Also, it just felt really good to have someone around who I actually knew from before everything got completely turned around.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: So TECHNICALLY this is a crossover, but I'm only using Fairy Tail characters, chucked into a different setting with their usual personalities (or at least I'll try to write their usual personalities), so I'm not bothering to list it as one. Anything that doesn't make sense because it's from the other world should be explained by the end of the second chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, I restate my earlier thing about trying to keep everyone in character. I'll try to keep everyone _but Jella_ in character, because I'll be dammed if I can write an amnesiac with no idea about his crimes as anything other than cheerful.

**Chapter 2**

"You know your way around, right?"

Jellal nodded "This garden surrounds most of the city, and acts as an entrance. If you leave, you can head to the fields from there." He was pointing through a metal fence. While I was staring at it wondering how we were supposed to get out, he vanished.

"Jellal?"

"What?" He poked his head out of the bush.

"Is that allowed?"

"Walking through the topiary? Why not? They aren't solid walls?" He disappeared again. Not wanting to lose sight of him, I followed him out. On the other side of the bush wall the garden seemed much less impressive. Surrounded by towering walls, I'd assumed it was larger. In the main area it seemed more… quaint.

Jellal stopped when we reached the very center and looked at me, perplexed. "What now?" I demanded.

"I never got your name…"

"I'm Gray."

Grinning like an idiot again, he said "Nice to meet you, Gray! I'm Jellal."

"If I'm traveling with you, you'll have to act less cheerful. It's creepy." He did his best to look gloomy. Suddenly I missed cheery. Not _Jellal_ being cheery, just cheery in general. Luckily for me, the god of cheery suddenly came crashing down. As in, crashing down right on top of me.

"Sorry." A small child with blue hair (green at the tips) rolled of me. I looked up at Jellal for help. He mouthed out 'Lilty', and helped the little boy up.

"Do you have any parents around?" He asked the child.

"No."

"You came out here on your own, then?"

"Aye!" A dead giveaway. Even in a human(oid) body, it was impossible not to recognize him then. But before I could call him out, Jellal spoke up again with sweetness that, like his behavior up until and after that point, did not match anything I'd heard about him.

"Where are your parents? Do they know you're here? Can you tell me your name-I could help you find them."

"I don't know." Happy said cheerfully. "I can't remember."

"Happy!" I called out before Jellal could drag things out any longer.

Happy turned and looked at me. First with a sort of dull awareness in his eyes. Then his face slowly lit up as a look of recognition entered his eyes instead. He took maybe half a step towards me, then launched himself into my chest crying "Gray!" It was a little hard to keep my balance when he hit me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him "Are Natsu and the others nearby too?"

"I don't know!" Happy told me "I was just here a few days ago. I didn't even remember anything about Fairy Tail or the others until I saw you." Which was when I started to fully believe Jellal's claim of a second case of amnesia.

"Is he a friend of yours?" Jellal asked me.

"He's my friend's cat." I replied. The look I got let me know he didn't think I was completely sane, but he could think whatever he wanted. Happy's a cat. A blue cat that talks and grows wings. That's perfectly normal.

Something made a gurgling noise, which Happy quickly revealed to be his stomach. "I haven't eaten since I woke up here…" he told me.

"I couldn't help you there." I told him. Now that I think of it, I hadn't eaten either. No wonder that bread tasted so good.

Both of us glanced at Jellal. He shrugged and said "There's a stand just outside of the garden that sells different snacks. We can get something there."

"Can we go now?" Happy asked. Jellal nodded and led both of us out of the garden.

The stand was in what Jellal claimed was the train station. Apparently the Lilty and the Selkie, who ran the train, were having some sort of squabble, so the train would just speed by the station from time to time, but never stop. The stand had been put up for people to buy food for a trip, being cheaper than whatever could be brought on the train. Jellal bought a couple loafs of bread with multicolored raisins in it and we snacked while he led us to our next destination.

"It'll go quicker if we ride these." He told me and Happy, motioning to what could best be described as…

"Giant chickens?"

"They're Chocobo." Jellal told me like I was some sort of moron. Where are you from, anyway? This all seems like pretty common knowledge to me."

"None of this stuff…" I grasped for the right word "_exists_ where we're from. We don't have giant chickens. People ride horses. And using magic doesn't require having a piece of crystal stuck in your body. And everyone is _human_, not Littleies and Selks and whatever else. I don't think we're even in the right _world_."

Now speaking like I was some horribly disturbed person who may commit murder for any reason at any second, Jellal said "Did you hit your head when you blew up that engine?" I glared at him as a response.

"Gray's right!" Happy put in for me "None of this was in the world we're from."

Looking slightly exasperated, though with a trace of consideration for what we were saying, Jellal sighed and climbed up onto one of the Chocobo.

"Do we need to pay for these?" I asked. I had no money with me, I doubted Happy did, and I doubted Jellal had much.

"Nah." Jellal waved the idea away. I wasn't about to argue free transportation. I climbed up onto the other Chocobo, and Happy climbed up behind me.

Jella, somehow, got his oversized chicken to start running, then doubled back and helped me get the one I was on to move too. Happy seemed completely unconcerned about falling off. I wondered, at the time, if he'd just forgotten he no longer had wings.

Our 'steeds' were incredibly fast considering they were chickens. Jellal must have had a lot of time to kill while he was waiting for me to wake up, because he could guide his seemingly without effort. In fact, at some points he'd even steer mine too. While we rode through a stretch of land filled with Sakura Jellal fell back so that he was side by side with me and asked "So if we're not from here, what's it like where we're from?"

"People can learn magic and work in guilds. We get around using _horse drawn_ carriages or magic vehicles. And you're a wanted criminal."

"Oh…" Jellal looked at me for a second like he'd really been hoping for something else, for which I couldn't blame him. Then, glazing over the last thing I mentioned, asked "Vehicles like the shuttle?"

"No. They have wheels."

"A train?"

"We have trains, but they're powered with coal. It's the smaller vehicles that use magic." At this point Jellal seemed to give up completely and moved back ahead of us.

We traveled past a statue, and from there we went to a cliff overlooking a farm area where there were some clearly defined train tracks. Since I couldn't control the stupid bird I had to ride on well enough to catch up to Jellal, I called out "Is this where we catch the train?"

Jellal, who stopped when I called out, looked back and shook his head. When I reached him he stopped my Chocobo too. "This is the place."

"I thought the train wasn't… wait… what?"

"Every time I came here monsters would appear once I reached the fields." Gérard told me. "You can fight them, right?"

"We're fighting monsters for Jellal?" Happy asked incredulously. I gave a shrug in response. I really didn't know what else there was to do, and since he had a goal it seemed like I may as well help him reach it. Then there was that thing about wanting to stick with people from my world.

"I'll try. Happy, you should stay back." I told him, getting off the Chocochicken. Happy slipped off it as well, and the stupid bird fled.

"They do that." Was all Jellal had to say when I watched the thing go then turned to him.

Not wanting to waist any more time thinking about that world's equivalent of horses, I started down the trail into the fields. As I got closer it got noticeably darker. Jellal and Happy followed. I didn't really care if Jellal got himself hurt, but I was a little worried about Happy. Just before the monsters appeared I turned to him and said "Happy, you know you can't fly, right."

"I'm fine." Was all he said in reply. I decided I'd make protecting him my first priority and clearing a path the second.

Most of the monsters that appeared were larger than me, though several were about my size. I fired ice at the nearest one and looked around, spotting one that was _massive_. Maybe the size of the guild. It was sleeping, and I made a point to let it stay that way. One of the larger cat-like monsters charged at me, and I shot it with another bolt of ice. Then, hearing a snarl, I turned and saw another already in mid pounce. I was thinking of how badly it would hurt to have its claws tear into me when, in a blur of blue light, it went flying backward.

Looking around for an explanation, I saw Happy grinning at me. When I asked him about it after we reached the Selkie guild he'd explained that he could manipulate gravity, which I suppose is how he managed to hit me with such force earlier.

After Happy was still grinning at me when one of the more human-like monsters ran up to attack him. I meant to shout out a warning, but something blasted through it, and it fell over. Jellal was standing behind it, wielding the gun I'd seen earlier.

"I thought you said it didn't work on monsters." I yelled at him.

"Not the ones who know to dodge." He retorted. I guess he let his Chocowhatever run away too.

Not wanting to argue over it with him anymore, I refocused on getting rid of the monsters that were awake. I silently thanked the gods that the giant and his friend (as I later noticed that there was a second one) had not woken up.

It got a little confusing at this point. Since we'd passed Sakura earlier which had, honest to god, petals falling everywhere, I assumed it was spring. In this area, which a sign we came across called Red Leaf, it seemed to be perpetual fall. I try not to think about it.

It was a bit of a hike from where it first became fall to where the train station was, but we reached it eventually. Jellal bought a bit more food while we waited for the train to pull in. After an hour or so it arrived, and we boarded. Happy took a window seat and Jellal sat across from him. While they both watched the scenery go by I watched them, wondering how many of us had wound up in that world, and how we'd gotten there in the first place.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Yay! Second chapter. Hey, you can review if you'd like. Please?


	3. Chapter 3

**YokoTenshi-chan**- You do? Yay!

**Chapter 3**

This part I got from Erza later. I suppose I should have stuck it earlier, because, to my understanding, it happened while I was unconscious, but this is where I'm mentioning it.

I guess when she came around she was at the beach. Actually, she _told_ me that, and Natsu more or less confirmed it for me. She spent a day or so wandering around there and learning about crystal bearers and the likes how Jellal had before getting on the train. Since the beach was Selkie territory and the train was run by Selkies there was no way the train might not be running there.

From what she told me (later stories made me doubt she's a completely honest story teller) she was staring out the window wondering who she might be when she was approached by two Selkies. I'd ask you to take a stab in the dark at who they are, but they could have been anyone from not only this world but one you never heard of before I started telling you this.

They sat down across from her and started talking. Actually, I think Erza said Lyon was the only one who talked. Juvia just sat there. Juvia didn't have her memories back then, either. Lyon said some stuff about how he knew she was a crystal bearer and how they were actually from a different world-I guess Lyon and I were the only two who never lost our memories-and something about how it was especially important to get her memories back because he could sense she knew actually knew more about what was going on than we did. Lyon's power let him do that sort of thing. In a way, it was a little creepy.

Erza was, incase you're wondering, the only one who'd sensed something wrong right before we were taken to that world. I don't know how she did that though, I didn't quite get her explanation for that one. She'd asked Makarov, who sensed the problem as well (but didn't get taken away with us), and he let her know how to get back. It's too bad she also got amnesia. Or... maybe not. She may have left before we'd gathered together as many people as we had.

Lyon explained to her that if someone from our world came across someone else from our world who they had a strong enough connection too then their memories would return. He also told her about our world and me and Natsu and Lucy and that he was willing to bet at least one of them would be there, and they could help her remember everything.

After that Erza started traveling around with Lyon and Juvia. Most of her story was pretty dull, so that's all I plan on telling for now.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Short. But it's not easy to write a lot out of a story coming from someone else, right? Review, please!


	4. Chapter 4

**EternalHero **- Thanks. It's nice to know you like it. Is Gray your favorite character?

**Chapter 4**

I was literally booted off the train when we arrived at the beach. Happy and Jellal followed, the later carrying my clothes for me. I'd never been kicked off a train for removing my boxers before. He made me dress back up before leaving the station. The beach was full of scantily clad Selkies though, so I only put the boxers back on.

We hung out there for a day or two. Happy and I helped out at a fruit stand for a few hours in exchange for swim gear and a small amount of money and played in the water while Jellal asked around about someone who might know him. I considered mentioning Erza, but it was too fun to see him stumbling over words trying to explain his situation after the umpteenth failure.

Finally, Jellal declared we were actually going all the way to the guild. Even if no one who knew him was there, one of the guild's main shticks was gathering information.

As it turned out, the path from the beach to the guild _also_ had a monster problem. Jellal claimed ignorance on this one. While Happy and I took out human-esk fish Jellal shot down what were apparently jellyfish that could float in the air. It must have been inconvenient for Selkie to go to the beach. Now that I think of it, how did who ever owned that field ever tend to any of their crops?

Ah well. We eventually made it all the way to the guild, which, as it turned out, was the most busted up ship I've ever seen. Apparently it only barley won some battle with pirates and has been stuck at shore ever since.

When we first saw the large number of people lazing about I turned to Jellal and asked "Are you going to go see if any of them know you?"

"…No. I'm… a little tired." He admitted "maybe tomorrow." Which I guess was his way of saying that he'd already been told no by so many people that he was beginning to feel a little depressed.

It was only with the aid of Happy's newfound power over gravity that we managed to actually make it onto the ship. To be fair, Jellal seemed to have a relatively easy time reaching it. He never once lost his balance while walking across the unnesicary tightropes, but that's apparently a Selkie thing. Natsu was doing it with uncanny ease too.

Oh yeah. _That's_ where we ran into Natsu. Jellal wandered off to god knows where just before Happy spotted Natsu playing on one of the many tightropes. When he first called over to him, Natsu seemed not to notice. In that morons defense though, Happy had a really different voice as well as appearance. I tried calling out to him too. He sort of glance over his shoulder, then turned around and hurried over to where we are. If I tried turning around like that on a tightrope I'd have fallen to my death.

Natsu hopped down in front of us and said "Gray? What are you doing here?"

Before I could tell him I had no efing idea Happy cried "Natsu!" tackling him in much the same way he had me when we'd come across one another.

Natsu did not need to hear Happy say anything Happy like in order to recognize him. He just knew. "Happy! You're here too! Is Lucy here as well?"

Thinking really hard about it for the first time I said "Her and Erza probably are. Things usually happen to the five of us."

"Oh. I know Erza's here." For a second I felt my hopes lift… "I ran into her at the beach a few days ago. Neither of us had any idea who we were or anything. I think she left on the train though." …and then I wanted to slug him.

"Did she say where she was going?" I demanded.

"Just that she was going somewhere else." Natsu told me. At this point I wondered if maybe I was the only one capable of restoring memories. That couldn't have been true though, because Jellal had been with me for a while and he still couldn't remember squat about our world. Happy just looked to different as a Lilty to be completely recognizable. It raises the question of why Natsu seeing Erza and vice-versa did nothing, though.

Because apparently he loves to time everything just perfectly to go horrible, Jellal came back right then with some drinks. Natsu, being Natsu, promptly slugged him. It took me, Happy, and four other Selkies to pull him away. To my surprise, even though I'd seen Natsu hit Jellal a lot the latter looked completely unharmed.

The four Selkies carried Natsu over to a cell carved into the cliff and looked him up there. I had Jellal wait on the wrecked ship while Happy and I went to speak with him.

"He's here too?" Natsu asked when we came up.

"Yeah." I sat down on the edge of the small indent that had been used to make the cell and said "I don't know how many of us ended up in this world. I guess it's another world, at least. He doesn't have any memories, though."

"I know. He got amnesia while we were dealing with Nirvana, right?"

"Well, yeah. But he got it again." I tried to explain "Like you and Happy, only his memories didn't come back as easy as you twos did."

"Where did you find him?"

"He found me." I admitted. I had no plans of telling Natsu about my spectacular failure in the city.

"Did seeing him make you remember anything?"

"I don't know why," really, I didn't "but I never forgot anything."

Natsu didn't really have any comments on that. He sort of just sat in a corner of his cell and pouted a little. We both just waited there for a few minutes before he said "He's not trying anything right now?"

"Same as when the council took him away."

Natsu sort of laughed, then said "The council must be pulling their hair out right now, if he's here instead of with them." I hadn't thought of that. I hope he doesn't get in too much trouble with the council.

Figuring it was now safe for Natsu and Jellal to be within fifty feet of one another, Happy broke the door to the cell and let Natsu out and we went back over to the ship. I guess being on it didn't both Natsu, because really the thing couldn't have been more stationary.

Jellal was sitting at one of the far ends looking bored out of his mind. He glanced up at us when we came over, but he didn't say much. I guess he was remembering that I'd mentioned he was a criminal. After that point it wasn't like he argued the different world theory any more.

"You got amnesia again?" Natsu asked once he was pretty much right over Jellal.

"Again!" Jellal looked up at him with interest he had yet to have shown me. "I got amnesia before?"

"You must be the first person to get amnesia while already suffering from it!" Natsu laughed. Jellal didn't look nearly as amused.

Remembering the drinks Jellal had gotten, which had spilled when Natsu attacked. I went to go buy some more with what I had left from our time at the beach. While purchasing the beverages I heard a gun shot-my heat dropped to my stomach. The weapon Jellal had on him flashed through my mind. I had the man who'd been selling me the drinks hold onto them for me (I think he said I had five minutes or else they'd cost extra) and ran back to the group to make sure nothing bad had happened.

Just as I'd feared, Jellal had fired a shot at Natsu. Thankfully, it was only his leg. I imagine that if Jellal's gun had used any sort of normal ammo or if the wound had been there long then it could have been a lot worse, but neither of those things were issues.

When I arrived Jellal was already apologizing frantically for having pulled the trigger. What I got from Happy later was that Natsu had continued to tease him until Jellal, in an attempt to simply make him shut up, had made the hollow threat of shooting him, then accidentally gone through with it. At least, it had better have been an accident.

Once Natsu stopped just flailing around Jellal, rather cautiously, got close enough to him to put a hand over the injured area. The crystal/mark on his cheek glowed faintly, as did the spot where his hand was. When he removed it there was still a hole in Natsu's pants, but the wound itself was gone.

"Your power is healing?" I asked.

Jellal looked up at me like I was stupid "I thought you knew. I used it on you before." For once I actually felt like whatever he was clearly suspecting I was.

"I am _not_ traveling with him." Natsu let me know.

With Natsu and Happy, there was really no comfort left in traveling with Jellal, but it did seem cruel to just leave him there all alone. If Erza was around, even if I wasn't wild about the idea, she would be the best person to help him recover his memories anyway. And she certainly wasn't at the guild or beach, going by what Natsu said. "He's coming with us anyway."

"Um… but… I wanted to come _here_." Jellal reminded me.

"A friend of ours knew you from childhood." I told him "Natsu says he ran into her on the beach a few days ago, but she left by train. Looking for her is a much better idea than going around asking random people here if they know you."

He considered it for a moment, then nodded. Turning to Natsu, I added "If you've been here the whole time you might not have notice, but this world is crawling with monsters. Having someone who can heal will be a huge advantage. That and, somehow, Erza will find out that Jellal is here regardless of whether or not we could tell her. We can help bring him to her, or face her wrath for not doing so then have to come back here for him."

Natsu gave a noise that I took as a sort of grudging acknowledgement-I think that noise was one of acknowledgement at least, and the issue was settled. After spending the night at the guild we went back to the beach and took the train, now with the intent of finding Erza and, if possible, Lucy.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Sorry this one took me a little while to get up. Reasons for the delay include being busy with creative writing class, tennis, the usual internet browsing that slowly drains ones soul, and we just found out a friend of the family commited suicide.


	5. Chapter 5

**YokoTenshi-chan **- I don't. In the end, all he's really missing is a couple days worth of memory. The rest was brought on by Mashima. I can't possibly feel guilty for that.

**Chapter 5**

When the train stopped back at Red Leaf our plan was to just wait for it to pull out and ride to the next stop, but when a group of Clavat passed us by Happy sprung up and followed them. Not wanting to lose one of our few members, the rest of us went after him.

We caught up to him outside by a phony, out of place looking garden, where he was staring hopelessly at a path leading into the mountains. Natsu ran up and thanked him for giving them a reason to get off the train a station early, at which point Jellal very politely reminded him: "The next station is a day's walk from here-and we're out of food."

"I saw Loke though." Happy said "He went that way." That way being up into the mountains.

"We'll have to go then." Natsu decided.

"What about the issue of no food?" I reminded him. We all looked at Jellal.

"W-well… I heard that there's a monastery _somewhere_ in the mountains." Jellal said "But I couldn't really say where. If this person was with all those other Clavats, that's probably where they're headed, but I doubt it's a short walk. In fact, I heard it's really long, and requires lots of difficult climbing in harsh environments."

"We have someone who can control gravity." Natsu reminded him "No worries."

"What about the cold?" Jellal reminded him. "Is _snows_ in mountains, you know." I'm pretty sure that most mountains didn't have snow at any reasonable living altitude during the summer, but who knew what season it was?

"I can use fire to keep me and Happy warm." Natsu said passively, creating fire in his hand as he spoke. "Gray doesn't mind cold anyway."

"Well I _do_." Jellal let him know.

"Then use that stupid jacket you've insisted on carrying around." I told him. Jellal got a sort of 'oh yeah!' look on his face, then pulled the jacket put and slipped it on. Wait… where was he storing that thing anyway? I don't think any of us anything more than pockets for keeping things in.

Gah, thinking about how everything in that world works makes my head hurt.

Our argument gave Loke and his group a bit of a lead over us. It wasn't necessarily easy to follow them. In fact, if it weren't for Happy's ability to lift each of us and, one by one, toss us onto the next level of the mountain, I don't think we'd have made it at all. More often than not we were all so busy making sure we didn't fall that we forgot to keep an eye on them and spent a little while wandering around hoping to catch sight of them again.

At some point we lost them entirely, but, fortunately, soon stumbled upon a much larger group of Clavats, who were willing to show us the way if Happy could use his power to get all of them there quicker. This may has saved _them _a lot of time, but it stalled _us_. Still, they did get us to a large, open, snowy, monster infested field which they claimed held the monastery on the other side.

For the most part Natsu and I handled the monsters. Happy and Jellal only got involved if necessary, Happy because… I don't know why. He must have just been used to not making huge contributions as a cat, though it might have been some other thing about having been used to relying on Natsu, or he could have just been feeling lazy. Jellal because he was shaking too badly to aim all that well. Once he almost blasted my ear off while trying to shoot once of three monsters that had ganged up on me. He looked too pathetic for me to give him any grief about it. His lips were as blue as his hair.

Once the monster situation was relatively handled we tried to head in the direction we'd been told was the monastery (as you could only see about fifty feet away through all the snow that the wind was tossing around), and were able to make out a bridge when a large purple bird tackled me down and ran off.

As was becoming a habit, we all looked to Jellal to explain that one. But his only response was "I-I've haven't b-b-been in th-this world any l-longer than y-y-you guys! I don't kn-know everything!" He was also pulling that stupid chain-mail jacket around himself as tightly as possible while he spoke. Not that it was really that cold out. Wuss.

Happy helped me up and we crossed the bridge which, thank god, the monastery was on the other side off. I like snow and all, but I was sick of the snow making it hard to see far away. Once we got inside Jellal went off to find the nearest fireplace and Natsu and Happy went to search for Loke I went up to one of the Clavat standing at the doorway and said "Do you know what's up with those purple birds?"

"You mean the wild Chocobo?" she asked. "They tend to be a bit aggressive. They just protect their eggs is all. Don't worry about them." A bit aggressive seemed like an understatement to me.

"I think I'm justified in worrying about anything that could create a giant bruise on my stomach." I was saying when Happy ran back in.

Grabbing my arm, Happy cried "Gray! We found Loke! Come on! Hurry!"

I let him drag me deep into the monastery where Loke and Natsu were arguing. Upon seeing me Loke frown and said "Another one? I'm _not_ leaving."

"Didn't that idiot Natsu explain it to you yet?" I asked him in as polite a tone as I could "You're-"

"From another world, where I'm apparently a spirit that your friend summons." Loke cut me off. "I'd definitely believe _that_."

"You have amnesia, don't you?" I asked. Even though he looked just like Loke I didn't want to find out we got the wrong guy.

"You could have just asked anyone about that." Loke countered. "If you want me to buy into this, you'll have to make me remember it, until then I'm not leaving."

"What would you do here anyway?" Natsu demanded.

Loke gave him a dirty look and started walking outside. We followed him into a graveyard, where he stopped and held his hand out over one of the stones. There was a flash of light, accompanied by dark bubbles, and a person appeared. Turning to us, Loke said "I can give spirits physical form-though only for a short period of time. I can allow people to communicate with deceased relatives." The ones who hadn't passed on was implied. "That seems a lot more worthwhile than leaving right after I arrived to follow a bunch of strangers just because they told me an outlandish story."

He was right. Natsu, the eternal optimist, said "seeing Gray and Happy got my memories back. Maybe seeing Lucy would restore yours. Help us find her."

"We don't know for sure if Lucy's in this world." I reminded him.

Loke looked skeptical, but nonetheless said "I'll bite. If this Lucy person can restore my memories then I'll join you guys-but I'm not leaving until then."

"That just means it would take longer to get her to you." I tried to argue.

"If she exists, that is." Loke retorted. With that remark, he left.

He refused to speak with us on the topic after that. After deciding that we'd just have to search for Lucy and come back later we went and found Jellal, who was _not_ pleased with the idea of leaving right away and petitioned that we stay the night for the sake of a nice warm bed, as well as a meal. While I was fine camping out in the mountains, I couldn't argue with a meal.

We set out in the morning after restocking on supplies. To avoid the monsters we went the long way around the snowy field-though that path led us past another wild Chocochicken. This one attacked Natsu rather than me, though, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Going down proved easier than going up. While we were still heavily dependent on Happy all he had to do was break our fall. We were back to Red Leaf and on the train by noon. Were we in our own world I wouldn't have thought it possible to travel such a distance so fast, but this world was just too weird.

As we later found out, had we taken the route we'd entered by-going straight through that field with the monsters-we would have run into Lyon's group. Yup, they were coming at the exact same time we were going. Lyon's freaky, invasive mind reading powers also allowed him to locate other crystal bearers-though whether or not that meant or minds were _different_ or he could since other things as well I don't know-and they'd been following our trail for the past day or so. The monsters we'd decided not to fight a second time distracted him, though, and they ended up just going into the monastery where they also ran into Loke. This is a good example of why not to cut corners. You only create two more in the end.

After the second group made the other world claim to him, he was a little more open to the idea that he wasn't just a regular amnesiac with the ability to give the dead a solid form, though Lyon said he was still suspicious it was some sort of elaborate hazing. Like with us, he told them he absolutely would not leave until his memories confirmed their words. Unlike us they had no way of guessing that Lucy was in this world, or that, since only Lyon had his memories, she may have jogged his memory anyway. Since he mentioned me and Natsu the decided to just wait at the monestary for us to find whoever would restore his memories.

It's really too bad we didn't meet them then. Not that I wanted Lyon to pick fights with, or that Juvia doesn't get on my nerves when she starts acting pushy for reasons I have yet to discover, but Erza's power would have been a huge help in battle, and running into them in a nice, open, _flat_ area would have saved us a search and rescue mission. But I digress.

Upon reaching Red Leaf _again_ we once again all turned to Jellal for an idea. He was becoming familiar with our 'tell us what this is' look and simply said "What now?"

"Where are we most likely to run into people at this point?" Natsu asked.

Jellal thought about it for a minute, then said "Not that I've been there… but the only other town I can think of would be Bridge Town. We could look there-but I head it's also a dump."

"Bridge Town it is!" Natsu announce cheerfully, starting to walk off in the direction Gray and I had first come from when going to the Guild. He must have done a bit of research on that world too-or maybe he just got lucky when he headed that way.

"We're taking a train." Jellal told him dryly, which managed to respark Natsu's dislike for the amnesiac. It took all of Happy's power to drag Natsu onto the stupid vehicle just in time before it left the station, and with that, we were off.


	6. Chapter 6

**YokoTenshi-chan **- I would totally think I was being punked. If I had amnesia I might tag along, but not if it meant climbing down a mountain.

**Chapter 6**

I'm not going to lie to you. Absolutely nothing important happened at Bridge Town. Don't look so disappointed. Life isn't non-stop action and drama, even for Fairy Tail wizards.

We arrived late in Bridge Town around evening. True to what Jellal had said, it was an absolute dump. Jellal looked a little disappointed, then said "There's probably a lot of ground at the capital we haven't covered yet. We could go get some Chocobo and-"

"I am _not_ riding another one of those stupid birds." I let him know. Naturally, I ended up riding one later, but getting back to then…

"We could cover more ground if we split up." Happy cheerffully suggested. He then added quickly "I want to go with Jellal."

"Why?" Natsu demanded, sounding more than a little hurt.

"Jellal has a gun, and you can tell just from looking at him that he's a crystal bearer. People would be less likely to try and mess with him." Happy explained with care so as not to make Natsu think he just prefered Jellal. It was true. Gérard was the only one whose crystal was visible. The rest of us were covering the marks that showed we could use some sort of magic with clothes, and since our magic was good for offense we hadn't bothered to pay for weapons and ammunition.

"About guns…" and ammunition "Jellal, don't you ever need to reload that thing?" I asked.

Jellal shook his head and opened up the part of his gun where I'd seen Bisca insert cartridges before. The inside looked impossibly complex. "It's a crystal gun. There were some tests a while back to weaponize crystals rather than just use them to power vehicles and other things in the main city, but most of them fell flat when someone refused to supply crystals for the project. I got this for free at a junk yard because no normal person could make any use of it. Crystal bearers can fuel things in lieu of actual crystals." He explained. "Actually…" he pulled a small handgun out of a pocket in what was once my jacket "I have one that uses bullets too. I was listening to Natsu explain how magic in the other world worked back when we were still at the guild. I thought it might be a good idea to get one that doesn't rely on special powers. I couldn't ever find another crystal bearer to ask about it, so I don't know if you can exhaust your powers or not."

The idea that I'd been traveling with a guy who'd hidden a weapon wasn't too comforting, but I'd become much more at ease around Jellal by this point so it didn't bother me _too_ much. With some reluctance Natsu let Happy go off with Jellal, and then the two of us split up to cover more ground. I searched the area we'd come in from, which supposedly was the home to some renowned inventor. I can't see why he'd have chosen to live in a polluted area right next to a prison though (or why one of the train's four stops would be that prison).

Natsu, Jellal and Happy all left to search different areas. Natsu went to what actually looked like a bridge while Happy and Jellal went to the main section of town. In hindsight, that was a horrible plan. The main section of town, AKA the most populated, was where she was most likely to be. Why would we have sent the person she doesn't know and the one who looks nothing like his normal self? Not that it really mattered, since she wasn't there anyway. But because Jellal had failed to mention there were other populated areas and I (rightfully) doubted she was in the city, I was determined to find her in Bridge Town.

My search was an utter failure. I ended up going to the inventor and asking him about Jellal's gun while waiting for the other three to return. He didn't really tell me anything Jellal hadn't briefed me on-as he seemed to be more interest in transportation anway-but he did show me his current project, an engine that runs without magic. It uses steam instead. How could you invent hovering vehicles before the steam engine? I didn't bother to mention that trains in our world already used steam engines. for two reason: 1, Loke had reminded me that most people wouldn't believe in the fact that there was a separate world, and B, he may have asked me how they worked, and I never tried to learn that.

Wait…

Well… Anyway… My search was less than fruitful. Natsu came back around the time the sun was going down with no news of anyone else from our world. He did have some sort of buried treasure flyer he was excited about, but I didn't think we'd have time for that until we'd found everyone-how ever many people that was-and were working on a way to get home.

Mostly for the sake of giving him grief, I gave Natsu this long lecture about focus and the importance of finding Lucy. For a moment he looked guilty… then we started fighting. Then we got kicked out of that inventor's workplace. It was nicer outside anyway-not nearly as hot.

It was dark out when Happy and Jellal came back, the later wearing that stupid jacket again. They'd had no luck either, though someone had attempted to rob them at some point. Apparently they'd given up when Jellal held them at gun point, and the guards hadn't cared one bit about any of it. They'd stopped looking for her before Natsu or I did and scraped together food enough for a meal. They gave us the leftovers. While I later realized that this was actually a thoughtful gesture, eating cold leftovers half an hour from midnight while figuring out the safest open street for us to sleep on was far from my idea of a nice night.

We ended up camping out in an alley behind the inventors house while deciding our next destination.

"I want to see the capital city" Natsu had said to start the conversation off.

"I don't want to ride a chicken back there." I replied.

"We can check there last" Jellal agreed "The capital is huge. I was there for three days and only saw about half of it. I'd rather go to the Vineyard next."

"The what?" I think I was the one who asked.

"The Vineyard." Jellal said "It's where people here grow grapes."

"What season is it anyway?" I deffinitly asked that one.

"I have no idea. I think the Vineyard is run entirely by Clavat. If this Lucy girl is a Clavat, and from how Happy described her she probably is, then there's a good chance that she'll be there."

"You're guessing whatever weird race everyone's become now?" Natsu asked.

"Well, Happy said he's the only one here who looks any different from how he did in the world we're supposedly from. Gray looks like a Clavat anyway, and Natsu and I look like stereotypical Selkie-minus the crystals-"

"What's the difference between Selkie and Clavat anyway?" I interrupted.

Gérard shrugged and said "As near as I can tell, hair color. Clavat have more brown or blond, while Selkie have more all-the-colors-of-the-rainbow hair. Anyway, if this Lucy girl is a Clavat the most likely places she'll be are the Vineyard or the monastery."

"Why didn't you mention that earlier?" I snapped.

"This place was on the train route." He said. He then stared at me expectantly, probably hoping I'd get what he'd only very vaguely implied. Finally, he said "We'd have to ride Chocobo to get there."

God I hate Chocobo.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey! I got Soul Silver so I haven't been writing much. That's why it took me a whole 5/6 days to post the new chapter.

...

I lied. I finished chapter 8 a week ago. Review please!


	7. Chapter 7

**YokoTenshi-chan - **I don't have to share my DS, and even if I did I've got a spare (some insignificant part of the hinge chipped off my old one so I got a DS lite for my birthday. They both work just fine though.) I wanted to make the ultimate Eevee team, but you can't get Leafeon or Glaceon on HG/SS, and I don't want to use my Diamond version cuzz I played around with a action replay with it.

**Chapter 7**

I'm sure you're sick of Bridge Town, and want me to get on with the search for Lucy (which was painfully slow anyway, it's like people came easier when we didn't even know there was a need to look for them), but let me go on about it a little more anyway. I'll try to make it quick.

When I asked Juvia after we got back to the guild she got all weird and shy and wouldn't talk about it, but I managed to track Lyon down at Lamia Scale and ask him about some of his time in the other world before running into Erza. I got a whole lot more than that, or course. Which is fine. Erza only told me about her meeting Lyon and what she was up to while we were all frantically searching hoping she hadn't frozen to death.

Lyon woke up kind of like I did, in a strange place and surprised to find himself fully dressed. Unlike me, he woke up in the dump known as Bridge Town as opposed to the capital city, which had clearly been designed to look infinitely more beautiful than the rest of the world (whether it succeeded or not is debatable). Also like me, he woke up with his memories perfectly intact, so he was more than a little disturbed by having woken up in such a different place-though I'd imagine that everyone else was at least as disturbed to have woken up with no idea who they were.

Lyon's crystal bearer power was, like I said, some sort of mindreading. I actually mean mind_reading_, not just that thing where you hear other peoples thoughts. From how he described it he'd just see things over people's heads. Not real words, apparently, but things that, if he looked at, let him know about a person. If he focused he could find specific things about them. He managed to learn _a lot_ about the world we were in by hanging around Bridge Town and, after that, the train station at the nearby prison and reading information from people as they walked past him.

After that he left the same route we left Bridge Town from-he said he had no money to afford a ticket with but, I don't think that Jellal ever bought tickets and I know the rest of us didn't. He passed through an open range where an ox almost ran him over and a scarecrow tried to shoot him down. I wouldn't have believed the later one if I hadn't run across the same laser-eye-beam scarecrow myself. _I kid you not_.

He passed up the chance to head to the capital city, which is nice because then he would have run into me and I'd have been stuck with him that whole time. Instead he took the same path as us that would have eventually led to the Vineyard. While heading that way he happened to see Juvia. When he said she stood out I joked that he had a crush on her and he slugged me and called me dense. Weirdo.

Anyway, Juvia stood out to him because of his mindready thing. I honestly didn't get much of how his power worked, but there was something about being a crystal bearer that made her pop out in a crowd. He described it as a patch of green in a painting otherwise made up of different shades of red, after all other analogies failed.

He wanted to continue to the Vineyard, having figured that she stood out not because she was a crystal bearer but because she was from the same world as him-and seeing that someone else (Lucy) was at the Vineyard he wanted to go there-but Juvia threw a fit and said she wanted to go to the guild. Sticking with her for the same reason I stuck with Jellal, he complied. They went back to Bridge Town and hopped on the nearest train to the guild. They didn't bother to get off, because they saw Erza boarding. Natsu was supposedly at the beach the same day, but maybe his brain didn't function enough to produce whatever it was that Lyon needed to see.

I stopped talking to him then to complain to Sherry about him (We've gotten along great since she stopped trying to kill me under Nirvana's influence). When I got back to him he asked me with absolutely no sarcasm if I liked her since we'd talked so long. He thought it was great because apparently she never showed interest in anyone. How can he be so dense? She only talks non-stop _around him_ about how much he loves her. She practically stalks him. Heck, she may have rejoined that guild just because he picked it.

So after that they went to Red Leaf and were planning what to do next and figuring the odds of different people being there when they went to chase down another crystal bearer, which is when Lyon learned that crystal bearers, not people from other worlds, were what was standing out to him. I never ran into a crystal bearer who was actually from that world, so I was surprised to hear there was one.

They went back to Red Leaf because Erza and Juvia really wanted to play in a hot spring there. By the way, Juvia's power, if you couldn't guess, was control over water. Some of us experienced a change in abilities while there, or a near equivalent, while others got stuck with the same ability as always.

Erza and Juvia were enjoying themselves while Lyon was killing time nearby, which is when we passed through chasing Loke. Rather than chase after us he ran to get Erza and Juvia, who insisted on changing into something more than, I guess, the swimsuits they'd been wearing at the time. He said they took their sweet time too until he let Erza know that at least three of the people he'd seen were close friends of hers, and he told Juvia some bull story about how her lover was there too.

I guess I could have asked Erza all this, but… Well… until I find out who _really_ named that stupid bird she keeps with her I don't really trust her to tell an accurate story. The same goes for Jellal. One of them was lying to me.

Erza and Juvia hurried up, and they got a late start tracking us. Also, since they had to climb where we had Happy, they quickly lost ground. I asked Loke when I got back to Fairy Tail how his group had made it up so fast. They'd commissioned some crystal bearer (his name rhymed with 'flail') with the same power as Happy to get them up fast.

Lyon's group only started going at the same pace as us once it got to the point where Happy had to help all those other people in exchange for directions, and lost ground again once they were still climbing while we were fighting our way to the monastery.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this already, but they camped outside and came through that monster field at the same time we were going around it to leave.

After that they didn't have the heart to go back down. Like Jellal, Juvia and Erza were absolutely against getting more than five feet from a fireplace, and Lyon wasn't too keen on the idea of more climbing. Loke had explained that we were going to find someone to restore his memoires, so they decided to just stay at the monastery and meet us when we got back.

I guess it's more Loke's fault than theirs, but did they really have to meet up with us on a god dammed cliff?

OXXXXXO

**Rune caster**: I got the 10th volume of Fairy Tail. I gues Gérard's name is actually Jellal. Maybe I'll go through and change it later, but not now. I'll wait until the site changes his character name to that first.


	8. Chapter 8

**YokoTenshi-chan -** Well, 's the official translation provided by Hiro Mashima.

**Chapter 8**

In the morning, having decided we'd inhaled enough smog, we left Bridge Town. I kept begging Jellal to tell me there was a train station closer to the Vineyard, and that we wouldn't have to ride the Chocobo again, but he insisted that any would be about as far away at best, and the Chocobo were necessary if we wanted to make it there before the next day. As Lyon later let me know, it was _a lot_ of walking.

There was a spot just outside of Bridge Town with a few Chocobo. Jellal got on one and Happy, remembering that he was the one who knew how to control the birds, climbed on behind him. Natsu got on another, and Happy had to move over to be with Natsu because idiot just looked to offended, and quickly became too sick to control his 'steed' at all. I walked alongside them for a while-I wasn't riding with Jellal unless my life depended on it, until we came across another Chocobirdy not too far away.

There was a guy-one of those Lilty who are so brutish that they look more like gorilla-standing next to the stupid bird, so I went up to him and asked "Is this Chocola…Chuck…Chocobo yours?"

"Just finished training it." Seeing the look on my face he said "For public use. We leave 'em out for a reason, you know." He paused "Wait… you traveling with that guy?" He motioned to Jellal.

Wondering if he'd somehow become a heinous criminal in this world too, I asked "Is something wrong with him?"

"Crystal bearer." The man spat "I wouldn't trust garbage like him if I were you." Which was when we first learned that most people weren't fond of crystal bearers.

"But we're _all_ crystal bearers." Natsu-the idiot-said, going as far as to show off the Fairy Tail symbol shaped crystal on his shoulder.

"Crimes against nature you are." The man said.

Natsu jumped of his Chocobo and stomped over to the guy "You've got a problem with us?"

"Clearly." I murmured.

"Don't get in my face, Selkie trash." The man snarled, shoving Natsu aside. Natsu, always to stubborn to let anything go, pushed back. The man slugged him. Happy jumped off his chicken (Gérard got off his and quickly grabbed both of them so they wouldn't run) and ran to Natsu's aid. Soon I was dragged into it. The four of us were all rolling around punching, scratching, biting, and kicking in the dirt. It was a free for all. Friendly fire going all out. Everyone was getting bruised.

Then the man pulled out an axe.

Natsu reacted to this first, throwing a ball of fire at him. The man dogged and swung at Happy, who got clipped on the shoulder and went down. Gérard started healing him as best he could from a distance while I shot a spike of ice at the man, who intercepted it with part of the handle of his axe. He swung at me and Natsu at once. I ducked, Natsu jumped, Natsu got nicked on the foot. Gérard was still focused on Happy.

I dragged Natsu out of the way and continued fighting the man. Neither of us were landing a hit. Then Natsu sat up and attacked him from behind with another fire ball. The man's clothes disintegrated instantly, which probably would have left me with nightmares if he hadn't been wearing this blueish-silver armor underneath. There were little glimmering spots-thin patches of crystal-all over the armor. Neither my ice nor Natsu's fire were any good on it.

Jellal finished healing Happy, who tried to lift the man up and toss him aside, but the man wouldn't lift. For a moment I thought he was just too heavy, but then I realized his armor was repelling our powers.

Jellal must have realized this too because, switching so that he was holding onto both Chocobo with one hand, he pulled out that second gun of his and shot the man in the neck. None of could say anything while the giant fell over and started gasping while blood filled his lungs.

Natsu spun around and yelled "Heal him!"

"It wouldn't work." Jellal motioned toward his armor with the gun "Nothing will work on him while he's got that. Besides, he'll only go back to trying to kill _you_." That wasn't what any of us wanted to hear, but Jellal didn't seem to care. He climbed back onto the Chocobo he'd been on beforehand and, after waiting long enough for one of us to speak again, said "Are we looking for Lucy or not?"

"You killed him." Natsu cried.

"Standing around won't bring him back." Jellal retorted. There was absolutely no remorse in his eyes. I wondered if he was really back to his 'good' self like Erza had claimed.

Happy looked sad, but climbed back onto the Chocobo nonetheless. Natsu followed, glaring at Jellal the whole time. I looked at the remaining one and said "I can't get on it. You just killed its trainer."

While I'm sure Jellal did it to be nice, I was a little appalled when, after pulling me onto the bird he'd been riding previously, he got onto the bird whose trainer he'd just shot down. I was about to accuse him of being rotten to the core, but I remembered Erza mentioning that he'd killed three people when saving her from torture. Different people have different morals. Jellal probably saw no problem with murder if it meant saving himself or friends, in his mind, he wasn't doing anything wrong (of course, he was still wrong).

I still wasn't letting his murder go. And Natsu, who had even less background on him than I did, was even more intent on showing him what a complete monster he was. Jellal kept defending himself, but you could tell he felt a little hurt. Even ignoring debates of whether or not he had morals he clearly hadn't seen his action as wrong, and felt offended that he was being badgered so for it. In the middle of our argument I imagined Erza, beaten, bloody, and missing an eye, chastising him for killing those priests, and fell of my Chocobo I was laughing so hard. Jellal chased it down for me and hold it steady while I climbed back on. I didn't give him as much grief after that.

We passed a field of angry ox, a small farm with laser beam shooting scarecrows, and a field full of sheep with stinking land mines of sheep dropping and arrived at the Vineyard just before noon.

Lucy was… wait for it… not there! She'd first appeared there with Juvia-someone actually saw them appear-and woke up with no memories. After some debate Lucy decided to work there for a short while and had left the previous day to go somewhere "more serene" to try and recall who she was. The Vineyard seemed pretty serene to me, but I guess it wasn't the most peaceful place, since people were running around everywhere.

Lucy had taken a Chocobo to that sheep-dung field and from there taken some shortcut to a hidden pond with a beautiful waterfall scenery, the man who'd escorted her told us. She'd become a friend of his, but as strangers we'd have to pay to be shown the path. Jellal said he was pretty sure he'd heard of the place and knew a less concealed route. It, naturally, required another Chocobutt (just making sure you're listening) ride for me, and also a train ride for Natsu.

The station we got off at (some time after the sun set) was called Moogle Woods. Apparently there were these living stuffed animals with bat wings that I never noticed before because I assumed they were normal stuffed animals-and they have their own forest.

Jellal did something surprisingly suicidal at this point. He jumped down from the station, which was, for some idiotic reason, perched on a branch of a giant tree, down a drop maybe as far as Fairy Tail is tall. Happy lowered us all down before jumping off himself. It was easy to see where Jellal had landed because there was blood everywhere, but he seemed well enough. Healing seemed like that much more impressive a power right then. All he said when I asked him about it was that he wasn't going to try it again.

There was a cave nearby that led to the scenic waterfall that we'd been told Lucy would be at. Thankfully, she actually _was_ there. She was sitting on a little island in the middle of a pond watching fish swim by.

Natsu got overexcited and ran into the water while trying to get to her. I froze us a nice little bridge over to the island and we all crossed to meet her while Natsu climbed up out of the water.

"Hey, Lucy!" Natsu said, coming up and grabbing her from behind.

To my surprise, Lucy screamed and cried "Rape!" Natsu, probably out of panic, covered her mouth. She continued to scream, though it was muffled, and looked up at him pleadingly while desperately trying to escape his grip. She clawed at his hands with hers, one of which had a sparkling crystal in the shape of the Fairy Tail symbol. After a minute or so she settled down and instead started giving him this really dirty look. This was when Natsu released her.

"Don't scare me like that again, Natsu." She said coarsely.

"What was up with that?" I asked her "Going around accusing us of _those_ sort of things."

Lucy blushed and looked away "It… I got am-"

"-nesia" I finished for her "Pretty much everyone did, as near as I can figure."

"Seeing Natsu made my memories return, but my older memories returned first. It took me a while to remember Natsu." She paused "I actually thought that my life was flashing before my eyes."

Remembering how it had taken Happy a moment to fully recognize me I accepted this explanation without complaint. Though my memories had never disappeared I had no reason to doubt that that was the case. Happy hadn't really paid me much heed until I joined up with Natsu, Lucy, and Erza, but Natsu had known us since he was little so he'd have been able to recognize us quickly. At the moment I didn't think much of this discovery. Sure, Natsu'd been accused of attempted rape, but no one else was around and it seemed like all it meant was it would take a moment for Erza to recognize us.

Oh yeah, Erza. Right then Jellal said "Well, now that we've found Lucy can we look for Erza?"

Lucy, unlike the rest of us, didn't seem too phased by Jellal's presence. Instead she ignored his question and asked "Do you guys have any idea where we are?"

"Another world, as far as we've figured." I told her "So far everyone from our world that I've come across had amnesia, but reuniting with people from our worlds seems to jog there memories-though there must be some conditions because all of us haven't been able to get Jellal to remember anything."

"Maybe it's because he already had amnesia." Lucy suggested.

Over Jellal's groaning, I said "No. Natsu met Erza earlier and neither of them got the other to recall anything."

"But you don't know where Erza is now." Lucy guessed.

"No." I admitted "Natsu and her split up and we only found him. We don't even know where to start looking for her. Once we have her, though, we can figure out a way to get back home."

"What about Juvia?" Lucy asked.

"What?"

"Juvia. She was with me when I first woke up with no memories." Lucy said "I wanted to stay with her because we both had amnesia, but she acted sort of testy with me-like she always does, now that I think about it-and left on her own the same day."

"How many people are here anyway?" I snapped.

"Everyone you know?" Jellal suggested cheerfully. I won't say exactly where, but I kicked him in a fairly low area.

"It may just be us, Erza, and Juvia." Lucy said.

"No." I told her "We ran into Loke too. We know where he is, he didn't plan on leaving. We were hoping to find you so you could jog _his_ memories. He refuses to go anywhere with us until we have solid evidence that he's really from a different world."

Lucy thought about that for a second, then nodded and said "Let's go back to him then." And then, to my deepest horror, as this had not occurred to me, said "Jellal may be right about everyone being here. It's not just people from our team, or even our guild. And a celestial spirit was brought here too. There's no telling how many people are here with no memories."

This time Jellal spoke over my grown "By the way, what's your power?"

"Power?"

He pointed to her crystal "you have some special ability-magic-right?"

Lucy nodded "Summoning."

"Some of our powers changed while in this world." I told her, figuring she just hadn't checked hers "Happy can't grow wings anymore, he manipulates gravity, and Jellal can only do healing now."

"It's summoning." She said flatly "I can summon monsters, but I can't control them."

"So you're even more useless than normal." Natsu concluded. Lucy kicked him in the same spot as where I'd recently struck Jellal.

"Anyway, before we figure out just how many people are here we need to bring you to Loke and find Erza." I said. Lucy nodded in agreement and Jellal helped Natsu back up. She showed us the shortcut she'd taken (which was more or less a drop down from a small cliff into a river, with cliff on the other side as well), which was conveniently also a shortcut back to Red Leaf. In my mind I was beginning to put together a map of the world we were in while Happy helped us reach the top of the cliff.

The next obstacle was the mountains. At the time I wanted to get up there as fast as possible, but I regretted it not to long after reaching the top.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Cliff hanger! No, not really. There's no real enemy in this story. The only conflict/dilemma is having to go find an unknown number of people. Sorry.

I didn't go through this one to make sure I didn't have any weird typos so let me know if you find them.


	9. Chapter 9

**YokoTenshi-chan** - Lucy isn't really useless, but they treat her like she is an awful lot, don't they? She's like the Ruby of Fairy Tail (only useful)

**Chapter 9**

It was snowing when we found Loke in the graveyard of the monastery. An old couple was holding a conversation with him hovering nearby. For several minutes he would not speak with us, which we didn't understand the reason for until the man vanished and Loke had him reappear. He was allowing this lady to talk to her deceased husband. The two talked for a while longer before the woman finally seemed satisfied. She and the man hugged before he vanished again. She looked so happy, I could understand why Loke hadn't seemed thrilled about leaving for such a bizarre claim as ours.

While we were waiting Lucy had wandered over to the edge of the graveyard and was staring at the expanse of mountains beyond the fence. We told Loke who she was, and he went and opened the fence for her. We followed to two of them out onto the cliff where Loke turned to us and spoke.

"I'll believe your story. I have yet to recall any of you, but my memories are returning."

"That's wonderful!" Lucy said "Now we need to find Erza and Juvia and we can start looking for a way home."

"After making sure that no one else is here." Happy added.

"I'm amazed that _this_ many people ended up in some other world." Natsu said "Erza and Juvia are probably the only ones left."

"Natsu, it's great to be enthusiastic, but we have to be careful here. If we find a way back and leave others behind they may be trapped here forever." Lucy scolded "Jellal said that there's still a large city we haven't explored all off. What if someone's there?"

"And it seems like by now everyone's started moving around a lot." Jellal pointed out "We'd probably need to station people in different spots to be on the lookout for other people from our world."

"You're useless there." I pointed out.

"Aye!" Happy added.

"I'm sure it's just Erza and Juvia." Natsu maintained.

"Oh. There are too people _here_ with those names." Loke told us. "There's another person with them who was talking about the other world too. They were waiting for you to get back. What's his name…? Lyon?"

I felt my heart skip a beat. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck traveling around with Lyon. We might have worked together just a little better recently, but being with him was still like being locked in a room with nine Natsus.

"But Lyon's able to locate crystal bearers." Loke added "From what I understand everyone from the other world is a crystal bearer in this one. He'd make it a lot easier to find other people from your… from our world."

Since I didn't know that Lyon, Juvia, and Erza were the last three people we were missing I suddenly loved him. Temporarily-and not in a gay way! I was just really glad to hear that we wouldn't have to spend who knows how long wondering around to make sure we weren't missing anyone. That's all! Stop looking at me like that!

A-anyway… Natsu was about to run off to go find them when they came out. Apparently, like Jellal, they loved bad timing. The elderly lady had gone and let them know we'd arrived so they went and picked the worst moment possible to find us.

Lyon reached us first. He saw me and said "I heard you were the one leading your group. No wonder it took you so long."

"I'm leading!" Natsu roared, and we started fighting.

Juvia followed closely behind Lyon. She was wearing something thick and furry that reminded me of the outfit she'd been wearing when I had to fight her back when she was part of Phantom Lord. She was shivering slightly and looking at each of us, hoping one of us would restore her memories. She stopped when she saw me and sort of stared vacantly as her memories started returning.

As Erza ran up wearing her standard armor Loke grinned and said "Oh! I was in the same guild as you guys." Which reminded me that he was there.

Then Erza reached us-and everything went to hell. Almost immediately she noticed Jellal-and he noticed her. A look of disappointment flashed across Jellal's face, which he later told me was because he'd only remember a few days of his life upon seeing her. He said he'd remember Natsu's statement back at the guild about two cases of amnesia, but he was hoping he'd recover from both.

Stupid moment number 1: Erza stared at him for ten or twenty seconds before suddenly striking him with lightning. Jellal was flown backward over the edge of the cliff. For a short moment Erza looked satisfied with this, then a look of absolute horror crossed her face. Stupid moment number 2: She cried out then jumped after him. Stupid moment number 3: Natsu shoved Happy-who was about to use his powers to grab both of them-aside and also attempted to jump. Juvia grabbed Natsu with water and pulled him back onto the ledge, but Erza and Jellal were now out of Happy's reach.

Loke ran back through the graveyard and returned with as many Chocobo as he could lead on his own. Lyon and Happy climbed onto one and he got on the other. Juvia grabbed me and pulled me back through the graveyard "We'll get two more!" She told me "We need to find them before they freeze."

If Erza's power was lightning instead of changing what she was wearing, and she was wearing cold metal armor, then I didn't doubt she'd freeze fast.

By that point I could at least make my Chocobo keep going in the direction I wanted too. Juvia and I mounted two of the remaining Chocobo in a barn at the monastery and hurried back to the cliff. Though the snow was picking up the tracks from where Lyon's group had run down the ledge was still somewhat visible, so we followed those. There was an extra set of tracks now, and Lucy was gone, but I didn't really think about that.

I was definitely more worried about Erza. I didn't know if Jellal's powers could save him from freezing to death (which, in hindsight, would have meant that both he and Erza would be safe) but I knew that unless Erza had killed him instantly than the lightning bolt wouldn't be an issue, and he had that stupid chainmail/jacket on so he'd at least hold out longer. But I was scared to death for Erza.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: If this chapter seems to be of poorer quality than the previous ones, it's because I finaly made myself read past the first couple chapters of My Immortal. I think my IQ just dropped by half. I discovered the ultimate torture for Levi, though.

Please, pretty please review. It would make me ever so happy.


	10. Chapter 10

Found some errors. I'll fix 'em.

**YokoTenshi-chan** - You didn't know Edward Cullen? Thank god. I'll curse the day I was first exposed to that crappy ruined-vampires-forever story when my brother told me to rename my cat after that loser.

**Chapter 10**

I got this part from both Jellal and Erza, and their stories didn't match up perfectly so I don't feel that I can vouch for its truth. There are some parts that both of them said happened, or that clearly did anyway so at least it's not _all_ a lie, though.

The lightning, obviously, didn't kill Jellal right away. It took him a minute, but he managed to fix that before he hit the ground, after which point he had to recover again. He healed Erza too after she landed and the two of them searched for a shelter. They eventually came across a cave that was being used as a nest for one of those violent wild purple Chocobo. Erza scared it away with lightning and the two of them went in there. I guess that sounds a little cruel, but that Chocobo had big thick feathers to protect it from the blizzard that was starting up, and between Jellal and Erza they had one jacket.

Once the two were safely inside the cave Erza apologized to Jellal. She always went mute when I asked her why she'd attacked him, but Jellal told me (with a glum expression) that she'd said that she'd remember some of the horrible things he'd done to her when they were younger before remembering that he was good again. He then added cheerfully that she'd also told him they were friends as kids. I'd been feeling a little mean spirited right then so I told him that that just made it that much worse that he'd betrayed her.

Jellal supposedly accepted her apology in a heartbeat, having remembered her telling him what a horrible person he was during that whole Nirvana fiasco. According to both of them this was followed by a very long and awkward silence during which time the rest of us were trying to run through a blizzard in the hopes of finding them.

After a while GJellal noticed Erza shivering. I choose to believe Erza's claim that he actually told her something along the lines of "Take off your armor" and Jellal's claim that she replied with something like "N-no. I'm not wearing anything underneath, not even a bra." Because the more I listened to them the more I noticed there tendency to make their words sound much more… elegant, and the other person's a little more awkward or unintentionally perverted. Even if they were both talking naturally the perverted way just sounds funnier. Either way Jellal told Erza not to wear her ice cold metal armor and she didn't want to remove it.

Jellal removed that jacket I'd given him and offered it to her and explained it in a way that neither of them made sound randy that he thought she'd be warmer with that instead. Since both reported that she'd made him turn the other way while she changed…

I'm sure hearing this will put you to sleep, but after this it descended into awkwardness again. They were, in Erza's words, 'only saved from dying of awkwardness' when _it_ happened.

I told you they kicked that Chocobo out, right? Yeah, so that Chocobo had actually been guarding an egg. The little baby had probably spent a good deal of time trying to get out of its shell but that's when it finally broke through. Jellal and Erza, most likely looking for a way to distract themselves from one another, _engrossed_ themselves in taking care of the stupid thing.

Now here's the really iffy part. Both gave me the whole conversation, word for word, but neither agreed on who said what. The conversation went like this (minus the stuttering. They were both stuttering when we found them).

"We must have scarred its mommy away." Yes, one of them said mommy.

"Will it be alright?"

"I'm sure we could take care of it."

"It's probably hungry. Do you have any food with you?"

"I've got some crackers. Can birds eat crackers?" Erza might have been the one who said that, since she'd been hanging around the monastery and was more likely to have food, but Jellal liked to keep supplies on hand… Who knows.

"Maybe. Do we need to chew them up first?"

"Probably?"

By both reports it was Erza who chewed up the crackers.

"It doesn't look like it likes them very much."

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"I don't know. How can you tell?"

"I don't know. I think birds normally have different colors depending on gender but I don't think that applies to Chocobo."

"We should give it a name. We can't just call it 'it'"

"Of course we can. It's a bird."

"What would you name a chicken? Chocobo really look like chickens."

"I wouldn't name a chicken. That'd make them hard to eat."

"Probably."

"How long have we been in here? I'm starved. Chicken sounds really good right now."

"Yeah… it really does. I could do with a wing."

"I prefer drum sticks."

"That's it! We'll call him Drum Stick!"

"No we won't"

And from there it reportedly degraded into one of those "Yes" "No" "Yes" "No" arguments. Eventually whichever one of them was saying "No" just gave up, and that's how Drum Stick got his name.

I mean, really! Drum Stick! And whichever one of them picked it must have known how utterly stupid that name was since neither of them would own up to it. Drum Stick. For as long as that bird lives, and for some time after, I won't be getting over that. No, I will _never_ be getting over that. And the worst part is that now it comes on missions with us. So we'll be about to fight and Erza will go "Wait! I need to get Drum Stick out of the way." And put that stupid thing in a tree so it can fall off the branch and start crying so she'll get distracted from whatever infinitely more important thing she's doing.

I'm not a bird person, in case you never noticed. When I was little and Lyon and I were still training together he'd always sic his stupid ice birds on me. Sometimes it still gives me bad dreams. Did I ever tell you about me and Lyon training together?

Oh…Lucy told you? Alright. No, I'm not surprised. I know you two talk to each other a lot.

I really got of topic, didn't I? Where was I? Oh, yes. So Jellal and Erza had this baby Chocobo that one or the other of them had named Drum Stick. In order to avoid things like what Jellal had done to Erza, that he was trying really hard to remember, or how Jellal was supposed to be in jail, which Erza was trying really hard to forget, they focused on this little baby bird.

We found them really late. It was lucky for them that they were both clearly freezing or else we'd have been furious at them for going and making us search in a blizzard. They were just shaking too much for anyone to give them much grief.

When we got back the first thing the two did, understandably, was search out the warmest room in the monastery and plant their butts right in front of the fireplace. A couple Clavats asked them to take Drum Stick to the barn, but they refused to part with the little heap of feathers. The Clavat walked off mumbling something about rowdy Selkie and came back with newspaper for Drum Stick to sit on so it wouldn't make a mess on the rug. It seems like pooping is all that purple pipsqueak is good for anyway.

Erza and Jellal fell asleep in front of the fireplace after a few minutes. They were leaning against each other in a way that would have been really cute if I hadn't seen them both screaming about how they were going to kill the other one only a month prior. They _both_ have some serious issues.

While they were sleeping Lyon explained that Erza knew how to get us back. He'd been too relieved when we found them to get the information from her, and since she was asleep then all he could read was her dream. He also made an… er… interesting comment about Jellal's dream. You know that wonderful liquid that can be used in laundry that people call 'bleach'? I had to apply some to my brain afterward.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Oops. I finished this right after writing the last chapter, but I got so into making tarot cards (they're Fairy Tail themed) that I forgot to post it. No harm done, right?

btw, _please_ review. You can flame me if you want, I just want feedback.


	11. Chapter 11

**YokoTenshi-chan**-I'm not on board with book burning. But for that _thing_ I'd make an exception.

**Anon**- :P

**Chapter 11**

"You _are_ able to get us back to our world, aren't you?" Lyon asked right when Erza woke up.

Naturally, her response was "What?"

"You have your memories back now, right?" She nodded "And you can get us back to our world?"

"I… remember being told how." Erza said "Given my current powers I don't know if I could accomplish it."

"Do you remember how we got here?" I asked her.

"Yes! Yes, I do. It was Grimoire Heart." Erza said "That was their way of getting back at us for taking out the Oracion Six. Someone in their guild had the ability to open holes between different worlds, but I supposed he only had enough power to get some of us."

"And Loke?" I asked skeptically.

"I sensed Lucy being pulled away. I tried to appear in your world and stop her from being taken, but I must have been caught up in the spell as well." Loke told me.

Erza nodded and continued "There must be someone in Grimoire Heart who's capable of manipulating people's memories. Maybe even their whole frame of mind." She paused and glanced at Jellal, who was still asleep, then waved away the ridiculous notion that had just popped into her head and continued "I don't know how exactly we'd accomplish it, but we need to find someone who can open a hole back to our world."

"Lucy." Happy said "When she summoned a Chocobo last night she opened a hole to a different dimension"

"Can Lucy open holes anywhere, or just to that place?" Lyon asked.

Happy didn't know.

I looked around. Lucy seemed to still be asleep in the room that had been provided for her. When I told Natsu it was his job to be insensitive and wake her up he got made and we ended up rolling around kicking and scratching on the floor, which woke Lucy and the rest of the monastery anyway. Once we'd been separated Lucy asked (Juvia) what the fight was about, and as told her that Natsu had thrown a fit when politely asked to fetch her.

Once everything was settled down enough Lyon questioned Lucy about her powers. By that point he probably already knew, but he might have been tired of digging into people's minds. If I asked he'd probably lie.

"I've only used it a few times." Lucy said when asked to explain her power "I can pull different monsters from other worlds with the ability, but I can't control them. I've mostly used it to distract other monsters that chased me."

"Well, can you open a portal back to our world or not?" Lyon demanded.

"I could try. It might take me some time to figure out." Lucy offered.

We didn't see much of her the next few days. She was mostly locked up in the room she'd been given, trying to reach our world. We all went about our own business while waiting for a yay or nay from her. Lyon and I found separate trails in the mountains to venture on. Natsu and Juvia sparred, with mixed results. Loke went back to helping people fail to move on. Erza and Jellal, in the mean time, took turns taking care of… D-Drum Stick.

Since I'm telling this you'd better have already figured out that we got back. On the third day Lucy reported that she could, in fact, take us back home. And she even took us back to_ her_ home. Wasn't that nice of her?

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: Sorry. I kind of didn't update for a while. I got caught up in a project for creative writing, and forgot to finish this.

Just one more chapter. I actually planed this whole story out, chapter by chapter, beforehand. I can say that honestly.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

You may or may not have heard this last part already. I know you were gone at the time, but it got a lot of attention in the news.

Like I said, we all appeared in Lucy's house. Those crystals vanished right away and our normal magic came back. How that worked I've never quite managed to figure out. The master guessed it was because magic worked to differently in that world, and our powers shifted temporarily to work with it. Not that that really made any sense.

(Not that anything that happened in that world made sense.)

Lyon left for his guild right away, saying he needed to report what had happened. And Lucy sent Loke back to his own world via her normal magic.

Erza was saying something about how everything was back to normal now when Jellal butted in to point that he was a criminal who probably shouldn't have been anywhere near hear. I probably would have cared more about that if when I looked at him I hadn't seen that dammed bird in his arms. Apparently it hadn't occurred to him to leave it in the barn before we all went to return home. Any important discussion we could have had about how best to return him to the council without being arrested ourselves or getting him into worse trouble was set aside so I could demand Lucy return that thing to its own world, Lucy could tell me she couldn't any more, and Jellal and I could spend the next twenty minutes yelling at each other about how this was or wasn't all his fault.

While we were trying to figure out what to do with him he stayed at Lucy's place. My apartment's kind of small, Erza lives in a girls dormitory, and Natsu… well, he stayed at Lucy's place. Lucy didn't want Drum Stick in her house, so _it_ stayed at the guild instead.

I can't remember why. It might have been that he'd remembered something important, or he'd just been bored, but a few days after getting he actually went outside and wandered around town a little. It was only a matter of hours before the Rune Knights descended upon us.

They gave their normal bit "We're the Rune Knights, the Council's special enforcement. Do not resist." Or whatever it is they say. Then they started listing all of Jellal's crimes and added that he'd broken out of prison. It seemed to bother him much less the second time around.

Rahal handcuffed him again and told him that his fate had already been determined. Since he'd escaped once already it was no longer possible to imprison him. He was going to be executed immediately upon returning to the capital.

Erza ran out of the crowd crying for them not to do it "It wasn't his fault!" She insisted "Really!"

Rahal said something like "Am I to believe you are behind him being out?"

Erza shook her head and explained the whole situation with Grimore Heart, the other world, and every weird little mishap there that she had been present for.

When she was done Rahal, who was looking at her like she had some major mental deficiency, said "I've never heard a less likely story."

"It's true!" Natsu shouted "It happened! You have to believe us!"

Erza turned and ran off while Lucy and Juvia joined Natsu in trying to defend Erza's bizarre story. The whole guild was raging when she returned.

She ran right up to Rahal and showed him Drum Stick and said "See? We brought this bird back with us."

Then there this really painful silence. You can find some pretty weird creatures in _our_ world, but a purple bird born the size of a full grown hen aren't among them. Rahal motioned for someone to check to make sure it wasn't a trick, and Drum Stick check out just fine.

"Alright. I'll report this to the council and we'll see if it changes anything for Jellal." Rahal said, which we knew was the best victory we were going to get while dealing with this new council. "May we take the bird with us. It would be best that we study this 'other world' to prevent another incident."

"Don't take Drum Stick!" Erza cried, pulling the bird in close.

Rahal just gave her an odd look, but one of the nameless Rune Knights asked the obligatory "Who named it _that_?"

I swear I'm not joking. Erza and Jellal both pointed fingers at each other.

A lot of people looked like they were much more interested in hearing this than going over more council protocol, but council protocol was ultimately more important than finding out who had a worse sense of what to name a bird. In the end Jellal was taken away with the knowledge that he'd only _probably_ be executed upon reaching his destination and Erza went off to mope about it with their 'baby'.

I don't really have to tell you this, but he wasn't actually hung-yet. It's only been a week, after all.

Thanks for listening, Levy.

OXXXXXO

**Rune Caster**: That's right, this story was for Levy. Anyone else who heard it was eavesdropping!


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